A Tale of Two Missouri Cities

 

by Mike Box

Guest Blogger

(Editor's Note:  Yesterday in this space I posted a brief commentary about a young man from Chesterfield, Missouri (a suburb of St. Louis) who had attempted to drive a 26-foot moving van through barriers and onto the White House grounds the night before..  His attempt was futile, but as police searched they found a Nazi flag in the cab of the truck, and as the young man was being arrested he reportedly made threatening comments against the White House.  It was clearly an act of terrorism, though not a very bright one.

An old friend from college who is a former resident of Missouri read that blog posting and attached an interesting comment comparing two suburban communities in St. Louis County, Missouri - Chesterfield, which spawned the fellow who tried to attack the White House two nights ago, and Fegruson,  where an 18-year-old black youth, Michael Brow, was shot and killed by a white police officer, a killing which resulted in prolonged nights of rioting amid an over-reaction by the state of Missouri.  Here is what Mike had to say about it - re-posted in this space with his permission, of course.)

"Talk about a tale of two cities! Chesterfield has a median family income of $124,551. Compare that to Ferguson, you remember Mike Brown and Ferguson, don't you? Ferguson has a median family income of $40,195. 35% of Chesterfield's residents have a Master's degree or higher. Meanwhile in Ferguson only 7% have reached that level of education. Nationally, only 13% of Americans are so well educated. 

"On August 9, 2014, 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. In 2019 a Chesterfield police officer shot and killed the driver of a car that struck him. The State of Missouri responded to Mike Brown's death by bringing a large military styled show of force. There was an investigation into the officer involved shooting in Chesterfield. He was found not to be at fault. The police officer that killed Mike Brown, Darren Wilson, was not brought to justice. 

"It is true that a prosecuting attorney can take a ham sandwich to a grand jury and get an indictment. In Saint Louis the prosecuting attorney, in my opinion, didn't try very hard to indict Darren Wilson. 

"There are some people in Saint Louis County that may have legitimate grievances with the government. By all objective measures the fold in Ferguson got the stick while those living in Chesterfield got the carrot. 

"But it wasn't a kid from the underprivileged city of Ferguson that pulled a stupid stunt in Washington, D.C. It was a member of the privileged community of Chesterfield who did that. And the kid from Chesterfield was arrested. I'll give you odds that if it had been a kid from Ferguson, he would have ended up DOA at the nearest trauma center." 

I appreciate the time and thought that Mike Box put in crafting his response to my simple regurgitation of the facts.  He provided an enlightening look at social and racial disparities, even within the same county, and his thoughts on the matter are reflective of the same divides that continue to plague most of America.

Thanks for sharing all of that, Mike, and for allowing me to repeat it.